Travel Tip: Art and Archaeology in ItalyNick Cave

Nick Cave: Soundsuit, 2009 Mixed media on mannequin180 x 90 x 50 cm

Nick CaveITALYVERONA • Studio la Citta • Ongoing

The first European solo presentation of work by the Chicago-based American artist and former Alvin Ailey dancer Nick Cave features his signature "Soundsuits"— multi-layered mixed-media, wearable sculptures named for the sounds made when the sculptures are worn. As reminiscent of African and religious ceremonial costumes as they are of haute couture, Cave's work explores issues of ceremony, ritual, myth and identity through a layering of concepts, highly-skilled techniques and varied traditions, and using materials such as fabrics, beads, sequins, old bottle caps, rusted iron, sticks, twigs, leaves, and hair. Mad, humorous, elaborate, grotesque, glamorous and unexpected, the soundsuits are created from scavenged ordinary materials—detritus from both nature and culture—that Cave re-contextualizes into visionary works of art. Cave first showed a "soundsuit" sculpture in the Basel art fair.